What a weird season we are having - another southeaster - we are all looking forward to a nice warm northeaster. Before the start the breeze was up to about 20 knots and very consistent but died throughout the race.

We had a really good fleet of boats for the second club championship. Blur (Jason, Mick and Tim) made their first appearance at the club after a slow start to Sharpie sailing (details like weddings, etc got in the way) and Southern Cross and The Ribwich also appeared for the first time this season. Rick Shortridge also sailed with Proud Aussie - hopefully he can sail regularly with us. Unfortunately Frank was away on family duties so John sailed his MG.

The first work was very close with a number of boats rounding the first mark in close company. Mr Freeze was first followed by Mainiac, Proud Aussie and Skulker. Mr Freeze got a bit of a jump to the wing mark but Mainiac caught back up by the bottom mark. All the Sharpies were quite close together along with The Ribwich. Wilful Intent and Spot On were sailing quickly. Skulker was having spinnaker halyard problems and withdrew after a fast start.

Mr Freeze picked the run well on the next lap and pulled out a big lead which was never challenged. Mainiac ended up second with the rest of the fleet finishing in close succession. It was great to see the boys on Hot Spots sailing well in that breeze and finishing with no problems.

After a week of crazy weather we actually had a nice day for racing - once again a SE breeze which seems to be common this season. About 10 boats were in the rigging area but a few of the crews thought it would be cold and wet out sailing so we had 6 boats started. It was great to see Scott and Harrison on the water for the first time this season in Hot Spots.

We did not see much of the close racing we normally have - the fleet was a bit spread out. Mr Freeze led round the first mark closely followed by Mainiac with Windansea in hot pursuit. Pleasure & Pain picked the wrong side of the work and were a bit further back. Italian Stallions and Hot Spots were next.

Mainiac picked the wrong side of the course on the next work and lost touch with Windandsea and Mr Freeze. Positions stayed pretty much the same after that. Windandsea got line honours followed by Italian Stallions and Mr Freeze.

On pointscore, first place went to Hot Spots with Windandsea second and Mr Freeze third.

There is no club racing next weekend as the MJ states are on. I have been told most of the fleet will be back the following Saturday

Over the long weekend 6 Sharpies spent two days on the water with Jack Fletcher - a coach from South Australia. The first day was very windy and the second a pleasant 5-15 knot Easterly. All involved learned something new I think - and as can be expected at the start of the season, all were going better after a couple of days of practice. We have all been given homework to keep practicing.

Thanks to Marc Ablett (Canberra) for organising, the Mr Freeze team for local PKSC support and Jack the coach who certainly seems to know his stuff.

Jason (new owner of Blur) sailed the second day as sheet for Pleasure & Pain and made the comment afterwards that he didn't realise how complicated things were in the boat for the sheethand. Jess sailed as sheet for Smoke for both days and was seen staggering round at the end - seems she had an altercation with a boom. All had a great time.

It was great to see more of our MG14s on the water this weekend. However some others may be classified as fine weather sailors - I think the rain and forecast winds turned a few off. As it turned out the rain didn't fall too much - and the wind was OK although a bit changeable.

From the start Italian Stallions, Intensity and Mainiac chose the port end which turned out to be the right way to go. The rest of the fleet also got away well and with the changeable winds things evened up towards the top mark. Mainiac led from Pleasure & Pain followed by the rest of the fleet in short order.

On the run leg, Pleasure & Pain picked the wind well and caught up to Mainiac and with the wind filling in took the lead on the work - looked like they were headed for their first line honours win but a quick capsize on the wing mark put paid to that. Meanwhile, the MGs, 420 and 470 were having a really close race with the lead changing frequently.

At the finish, Mainiac managed to hold off a fast finishing Pleasure & Pain to take line honours for the long course boats. Italian Stallions just managed to beat Wilful Intent on the line for the short course very closely followed by Intensity, Spindrift and Prawn Stars.

Pointscore results were Wilful Intent first, Pleasure & Pain second and Mainiac third. The handicapper may have to look closely at these results as the one family figured on all three boats !